O.P.I Gargantuan Green Grape...

More like minty/Apple-y actually... Grape doesn't actually look that way here in France but I do love the name of it, don't you? 

I ordered this nail polish together with a few others on mbeautylounge.com on May 5th and received my order on May 29th so that's about 3 weeks if you don't count all the May bank holidays that we had this year. 

I paid 5.70$ for this O.P.I nail polish so I really couldn't not get it as in France, O.P.I polishes cost more than 15€ each!

After putting the first coat on my nail, I wasn't really convinced by this shade and a bit disappointed. It looked very sheer when I thought it was opaque and a lot more creamy. I kept applying it though and after the 3rd coat -even though I hate polishes that need more than 2 coats to look opaque on the nail - I actually started loving the color. 

I also wanted to try my White Polka Dot polish by Nubar so I put one coat on my middle finger nail but I am now remembering that I actually bought this polish to put on my darker nail polishes. 

Here are the product that I used to do my Gargantuan Green Grape nails. I absolutely love the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat, it does dry your nail nearly instantly!

My overall opinion on this O.P.I shade: After 3 coats, the color looks really great and I really love it. Though I really don't like, as I already said, polishes that need 3 coats to look opaque on my nails. But I think I can live with that cause the color looks amazing.

I would also love to try Navigate Her by Essie and Hey! Get in Lime by O.P.I as I would love to have a greener polish than this one to actually go with my new ballerina shoes.

Well, looking at it now, Gargantuan Green Grape isn't such a bad match :]

Some other beauty boxes

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was going to receive some more beauty boxes and so I did last week before leaving for London for a 3-day trip to my favorite city. 

The first box I received was "Ma Boîte à Beauté" which was full of organic products! 

All those products aren't products that I would normally use but I will try them all :)

And here comes the second box that I absolutely love! All the products are amazing and the box looks so cute! 

This is the Joliebox

• Biosilk - hair serum (that I also received in the Glossybox but I don't mind as I am already in love with this product)
• Le French Touch - Lipstick by Lancôme (this is a limited edition which is sold for 29,90€ at Sephora! Such a great surprise to receive such a fancy product) 
• Phytojoba - Shampoo for dry hair (I won't be using it as I don't have dry hair at all) 
• Moisturising body Serum by Boots 
• Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream (this is my FAVE product, definitely! it smells amazingly and leave your hands so soft, you just can't stop touching them). 

My first beauty box

Have you ever heard of Beauty Boxes?! A few weeks ago, I had no idea those existed and a friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of a box she had just received and this is how I discovered this concept which apparently arrived in France in June last year so it's actually old news for everyone but me :] 

After visiting a first website and looking around blogs, I discovered that there were more than just one brand of beauty boxes so I decided to to try some of them out (understand here that I ended up subscribing to all of them). 

 
 

The concept is simple. Every month, you receive a box with about 5 beauty products in travel sizes (sometimes full size) from different cosmetic brands (usually high quality and expensive ones). The subscription price varies from one box to the other but it's more or less around 10-15€. 

Today I received my very first box from Glossybox. It is called "Belle des Champs" as Spring started only a few days ago. 

This is how the box looks. I simply love it.

And this is the inside of the box ; it looks so classy and highly glamorous!

I am quite happy with this first box - to be honest I had already spent all weekend reading blogs and I already knew more or less what I would receive so it wasn't much of a surprise. I'll try to not do this next time but it's really tempting when you know some people have already received their box. 

Tomorrow I will get another box from "Ma boîte à beauté" so I might also show you what's in there if you're interested. In the meantime, I would really love to hear about your experience with beauty boxes and whether they exist or not in your country. 

Let's have a beauty talk :]

A Zalando moment :)

Do you know what is the best part of private Sales?! When you order the product and see you have more than 50% of discount on the product, you're all excited and then time passes and you forget about your order because private sales always take weeks to be dispatched... 

And then out of the blue you receive a package and you're like "I haven't ordered anything recently"... and this is when you realize "OMG! My Zalando order!!!" and for me, this is the best part! 

So here are my new shoes for the summer. I am already in love with them. I got them for 25€ instead of 49,90€ so it's a really great deal, don't you think? 

Apart from my beautiful shoes that I got this morning, my mailbox has been empty for the last 2 weeks but I won't complain as I know this is all my fault as I haven't been writing a lot lately but I'm planning on doing a bit of writing this morning and maybe tomorrow. So, if you're waiting for a letter from me, please be patient. 

By the way, have you ever bought on Zalando? the standard online shop or the private one? what's your experience? Do you know the brand Xti? 

Mail Day: weeks of mail :]

So, it's been a while, right?! 

My mailbox hasn't exactly been full in the past weeks so I thought I'd post something when I actually have some mail to show so here we go starting with some Etsy orders that I received last week. 

This one if from the Etsy Store Vintage Tag... I was a bit disappointed by the shopping experience as she made me pay more than 10$ of shipping fees and even though I asked her if she could lower her fees a bit, she didn't answer my message.  As you can see on the envelope, we are far from the 10$ that I pay her for shipping the package. 

But Thankfully, on Etsy you also have amazing people who send the best packages and make their customers happy 100% of the time :) La Papierre offers some really great stationary that are really worth the price! I could buy from this store every week, just for the pleasure of having mail from Julie in my mailbox :) 

So now come the letters that I have received since my last post...

A letter from Italy that will be answered very soon for a special friend who is celebrating her birthday today! Happy Birthday my dear!

And here are 6 more letters from my amazing friends, coming from: Belgium, Croatia, Brazil, Peru, USA & Germany! 

Happy Mail Day to everyone ;)

A package Mail Day

This week I receive a few packages - I actually got 2 of them today as I had to go to the post office earlier this morning to pick them up. Thus, I decided to make a special Package Mail Day =]

The first package I received was from one of my dearest penpal in Germany. Inside this package were a notebook and a CD. 

Here is a picture of the first page of the notebook :) 

My penpal had the greatest idea and we decided to make a "100 questions' notebook project". Each of us writes down 100 questions that they want to ask the other in a notebook and send it out to the other. I have sent her mine and she sent me hers so now what I have to do is decorate the notebook, answer the questions, illustrate my answers... I now have to unleash my inner creativity! I will also be doing this project with my sweet Twinnie. 

If any of you feel like they would love to participate in such a project with me, let me know! 

I will post pictures of the notebook I'm filling in at the moment when it's all done and my penpal has received it. I don't want to post any spoilers! 

Then, today, I went to the post office to pick up 2 packages. One, I was certain of what it was, the 2nd one, I wasn't sure but when I saw the little bow, I knew exactly where it was coming from! 

This very cute package comes from England, from a fellow Blogger who has 2 amazing blogs. Visit her at: Make my Day She actually totally made my day. A while ago, I won an amazing salt & pepper set in one of her giveaways and that's what's in the package. But, what I didn't know is that I also was chosen to receive some amazing ATCs that she created --> Have a look at her blog post!  This was a complete surprise to me. 

The other package was some make-up that I had ordered last weekend. I needed a new foundation and a new powder so I asked for recommendation to a friend and she told me the Healthy Mix from Bourjois would be perfect for me and I have tried it already and it indeed is perfect! Plus, it smells so nice! 

Mail Day: February 2012

3 months later, I am finally starting with my "Mail Day" posts again. This one will be different as it's not a real update of all the letters that I have received in those months that I wasn't posting on my blog.

I will show you a picture of the letters that I recently received and are waiting for an answer. If you have sent me a letter and you can't see your letter in this picture, there might be a few reasons to this:

1. I haven't received your letter yet
2. Your letter is already answered and you haven't received it yet
3. I'm currently answering your letter
4. I don't know who you are and I don't know why there should be a letter from you on this post *lol* 

Here are letters from: Belgium, Ireland, USA, Canada and Colombia <3 

All of you should hear from me very soon as I am in a good writing mood at the moment :] 

And hopefully I'll post a new "Mail Day" again next week, stay tuned! 

My very first award =]

Yesterday I received my very first award from my very dear friend Manuela who has a lovely blog about make-up (mainly): You should take a look at Misslittlesnail

As with an award comes rules, I will list them now:

1. Link back to the person who awarded you
2. Answer the award questions
3. Tell something about yourself that you haven't told anyone on your blog yet
4. Award as many blogs as you think are worthy of this award
5. Make sure to let those you gave this award to know that you awarded them.

The Award Questions

1. What is your go to makeup product? hmmm, my YSL mascara :) 

2. What was your favorite fashion trend of 2011?
Definitely lace for tops and dresses! Here under is a dress I got from H&M after I saw Pippa Middleton wearing it. 

3. What is your favorite dessert?
A pastry called "Forêt noire" with cream, cherries and chocolate *yum yum* 

4. Favourite color?
Pink if you hadn't guessed yet! 

5. What is your middle name?
My middle name is Maria, not many people know that.

6. What was the last song that you listened to? 
 My phone says that the last song I listened to is "Launching Ships" by Milow.






7. Cats or dogs?
Dogs, Dogs and Dogs =]


Now I should say something that I have never said on my blog yet... well to be honest, I have always wanted a blog award as I always see them on my friends' blog but never received one and never said that I secretly wished I'd receive one :) So that's something I have never said to anyone on my blog. 


Who deserves this award? Wow that's a very hard question and I do think that all the blogs I follow deserve this award but I'll list 3: 

• Marina from Time of your life
• My dear Twinnie from My Dear Jen
• Saskia Hamilton from Snail Mail, and life's tiny details... I recently discovered her blog and I absolutely love seeing all her letters and all the pictures she posts on there. 

Adopt a Bee

Sustainability is a word that often comes in Companies speech and is part of every big company's commitment to making Earth a better place.

Would you like to adopt a bee? I have adopted mine this morning and her name is Lilly Bee.
I think this is a funny way to promote a great cause and show your support to a great voluntary organization.

You too can help save lives and build a sustainable future for inhabitants of Uganda. For each bee adopted, SAP will give money to Hives Saves Lives Africa.

ADOPT A BEE